'The People Above' : Politics and administration in mid-eighteenth century Scotland

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Abstract

This thesis outlines the structure of government in Scotland
after the Treaty of Union, and in addition provides a study in depth
of the politics and administration of Scotland from 1747 to 1784.
The operation of government is described on three levels; in London,
in Edinburgh, and to the localities, and both its official and unofficial aspects are discussed. The most important point to this discussion is its emphasis on distinguishing managerial functions from
ministerial functions in. Scottish government. Scottish administration 'managed' Scottish affairs for the government yet also acted to
a 'ministerial' capacity by representing Scottish interests in tha
government as a whole. In this sense there are many similarities
between Scottish government in the eighteenth century and Scottish
government alter 1941.
The rest of the thesis examines the last years of the public
career of the third Duke of Argyll as manager or minister of Scotland
and the failure of attempts to replace him. The operation of
eighteenth-century Scottish government and administration and the
relationship of the Scottish minister with tha government is shown to
detail. This revolves around the policies and personalities of the
Duke of Newcastle, Argyll, the elder Pitt, the Earl of Bute, George
Granville, and Bute's brother James Stuart Mackenzie, and the effect
of both the 1745 rebellion and the Seven Years War on Scotland's
status within the Union.
A last chapter provides a short account of the political and administrative vacuum in Scotland which followed the dismissal of James
Stuart Mackenzie as Scottish minister in 1765, and the early career of
Henry Dundas, who by degrees revived the place of Scottish minister,
with the help of the Duke of Buccleuch and the younger Pitt, after 1775.